“Get a Toyota.” These mere three words, sliced from our language with an economy and precision only Hemingway could match, represented the totality of my late father-in-law’s car-buying advice. A Chevy man since WWII, he came around (as so many did) to the value and reliability of Japanese cars as the Malaise Era was delivering peak ennui and the imports were striving to build top-quality machines. He acknowledged the superior reliability and durability of Japanese brands in general, but high above them all was Toyota. Looking for a truck? Get a Toyota. You need an economy car? Get a Toyota. Something sporty? Get a Toyota. Premium sedan? Get a Toyota (a Cressida, specifically). Because reliability. You can’t go wrong with a Toyota!
But of course, sometimes you can go wrong with a Toyota, or any other super definitely reliable brand. And the inverse is also true: examples of brands and models that “everyone knows” are totes unreliable still have their proponents that will tell you they can, in fact, be counted on. Tony does not have to fix it again!
And so, The Autopian Asks: what universally-regarded-as-reliable car was unreliable for you–or vice-versa?
To the comments!
I admit to recomending Toyotas as a generally reliable and durable car. One time my cousin asked me what I recomended and when I responded Toyota her then boyfriend (now husband) said “no way those are Junk”. When I asked why he though that he said he had to have the engine on his Celica replaced at only ~40k. When I asked how often he had the oil changed. His reply was that he took it in for the free oil change and then did nothing but put in gas and drive it until the engine gave out while driving down the freeway.
If you abuse a hammer badly enough, it will eventually break… I had an aunt complain about my uncle’s Tacoma that was subjec to the frame replacement (admittedly not great) but mainly that the exhaust rotted-out. This is in western PA where exhaust is basically a wear item due to salt. Those were the ONLY problems in 15 years…
My 2013 Subaru had a mystifying, undiagnosable engine problem that would cause it to refuse to start after long drives. I suspected (and systematically ruled out) temperature issues, heat soak, a thermostat, air/fuel mixture, throttle body…nothing worked. Bummer, too, cuz I really liked it as an all-around adventuremobile (though it was underpowered.)
OTOH: nothing more expensive than cheap German luxury, you say? My 2001 BMW Z3 has performed *flawlessly* for years. Runs like a top. And the clutch is way sturdier than the one on my ‘05 Honda was, too.
OMG! I have been waiting for this opportunity!
My wife and I purchased a 2005 Toyota Matrix for in 2005, thinking “hey, Toyota! We can’t go wrong!” What a pile of shit!
And not just the stuff breaking on the car: the Matrix is one of the worst engineered piles of steaming dog doo to pollute the planet. Toyota put a miniscule 1.8L engine and outdated 4 speed automatic in what is a relatively heavy car with the AWD.. As a result, it was underpowered and could rarely break 30 mpg. Also, the suspension geometry in the AWD models must have been faulty: ours chewed through a brand new set of tires every 25-30K miles, in spite of regular tire rotations. In addition, in the time we owned it 3 out of 4 wheel bearings were replaced, the plastic cladding was constantly falling off, and the digital clock worked when it damn well felt like it (which wasn’t often).
What I discovered about Toyota “reliability” is that the dealers simply deny warranty claims on the cars. If they don’t show a warranty claim, it couldn’t have broke, right?
This terrible ownership experience made us switch to Nissan, and thus another “fact” was dispelled: in spite of how the gadflys on these sites bash Nissan, it has been our experience Nissans are better than Toyotas and offer better warranty service.
Thank you finally letting me get this off my chest.
You guys have done great with the new website.
One can’t help but wonder if the gadfly Nissan-bashing, whether consciously or not, comes from the fact that the brand is associated with certain marginalised groups in the US. Tack on the phrase “If ya know what I’m sayin” to the end of any snarky comment about Nissan drivers and you’ll see what I mean.
Note to Dreamworks: please give us a sequel to Bee Movie starring Josh Gad and call it Gadfly.
That may be a factor, but of course the bad reputation is a result of their guaranteed to fail and expensive to replace CVTs.
You’re not wrong. But unreliable brands with cache are respected more than brands associated with “the poor”. Nissan’s predatory loan tactics did more to destroy it’s reputation than it’s transmissions did.
I had a few Matrixes, none awd though.
My first was an ’03 XRS 6 speed.
I bought it from Toyota in ’07 as it was off lease. They replaced an axle hanger bearing and park brake cable when I bought it. After 100,000km of hard-core daily commuting, blasting through 6 inches of snow, and the occasional autocross, I got bored and decided it must need some routine maintenance.
The brakes were only $100cdn for all pads and rotors, but when I checked, the old brakes still had 80%. Likewise, the original spark plugs were good for another 20k or so.
I traded it for a new 2011 model for my wife. That one was decontented and noticeably cheap inside. Still, it drove beautifully and the amount of fuel usage, when considering the vehicle size, was shockingly low. My Suzuki Swift used more fuel.
Of course every company puts out a few Friday cars here and there, but I can attest that Toyota reliability is no hoax.
2010ish ford escape (last year if first generation). It’d been someone’s company car and I got it in 2013 with 100k miles. I drove it until 2020 and 200k miles with nothing but gas, oil changes, one set of pads and rear drums and a set of tires. The AC did go out around 175k miles and, after a bit of troubleshooting, it looked to be a catastrophic failure common to that car ($1000+ repair). Never fixed that as I had a motorcycle for when it was hot out. The transmission would slip going by into second when cold but otherwise never missed a beat. It was towing 3k lbs trailers up entirely too steep and rutted out landfill mud roads the day before I sold it. Absolutely awesome car. The 240 hp v6 and 6 speed tuned for actual driving put every crossover and suv made today to shame.
I think that car severely skewed my opinions of reliability. I keep seeing people say ‘it never needed anything in the 50000 miles I had it’ or ‘it made it to 125k with just a radiation and some hoses’. I’m like wtf did you need a radiator? It wasn’t that old, but a combined 10 years and 200k miles without a single mechanical issue (AC excluded) is pretty damn good. The interior was 95% when sold, and the outside was very good besides a few paint chips and faded plastic.
Regarded as unreliable, but it’s been reliable for me: My R56S Mini Cooper. I have the “2nd gen” Prince engine in which they fixed some of the things (mine is 2012). I’ve had it since it was new and I’ve done all the recommended maintenance. I’ve only had 2 significant issues in over 120k miles.
1) Thermostat failed (non-engine failure). Part was backordered for a month, and an expensive part – thanks BMW – but I was back on the road with minimal cost – again, for a BMW.
2) Fuel pump relay failed (left me stranded in-town). It took my mechanic a while to diagnose, and the relay was part of a major computer so it was expensive – again thanks BMW – but 2 years after the repair it’s running fine.
My first car was an ’82 Ford Escort four-door hatchback with a manual, grey with a red pinstripe (I think there were many Fords of that vintage with that paint). It served me well from when I bought it in the summer of 1989 until 1993, when I sort of sold it to my grandfather (I say “sort of” because he never actually paid me for it–I think he gave me a first payment of $50, then the plan he and my father came up with so he could pay me the rest never really jelled). A few things needed fixing along the way and I had the interesting experience of trying to go up a steep ramp in a downtown Philadelphia parking garage with a full load of passengers and finding it just didn’t have the power–I backed down, took a running start and made it without having to make anyone get out…but it never stranded me–it threatened to once when the wire slipped off the carburetor heater, but I made it home and it was an easy fix–and while I don’t want another one, I remember it with affection (and still prefer four-door hatchbacks to most other layouts).
Definitely the VW 1.9 TDI.
Unless it was the Ford 7.3 Powerstroke.
Fuck diesel, now and forever, you couldn’t pay me to drive one ever again.
A friend had a 1998 Camry that was flawless for nearly 350,000 miles. The friend was meticulous about maintenance and care, so when he sold that Camry nobody believed it had even a quarter of the miles on it that it did.
He then bought a 2011 Camry Hybrid, and that thing was an utter pile of crap. It had more repairs (luckily under warranty) in the first three months than the 1998 Camry had in it’s entire life. I’m pretty sure he would have lemon lawed the thing if his personality would have allowed it, but in his mind if he fixed all the issues then eventually it would be reliable in the long-haul. It was not reliable in the long-haul.
My most unreliable car was 1993 Ranger that I paid $500 for. Even at $500 it was a rip-off, and that stupid Vulcan 3.0L V6 was just neverending with problems, most of them to do with the poor design in the top end oiling passages. When I finally got it running long enough to actually drive, my sister borrowed it and then summarily spun out in the rain and totaled it. When she informed me of its fate, I first made sure she was okay, and then in response to her wondering why I didn’t seem mad, I simply said “I hope it rots in hell”. The $800 1995 Explorer that replaced the Ranger was a gem, despite being a flood car.
3rd generation Rav4 (2011, 4 cylinder 4WD)
I’ve owned 200+ cars, and this thing was in the bottom three for reliability. I only owned it for 5 months. It burned a ton of oil, every single fastener on the thing was rotted into some kind of charcoal-like brittle mess. Fuel economy was brutal, the sunroof leaked like a sieve, the alternator decided to leave me stranded with my kid when we were out of cell range (but never did throw the battery light on), it always had weird suspension clunks (even after replacing the sway bar links and control arm bushings), the support bearing for the right axle came apart entirely, and then while coming home from work one night, the transmission did a bit of a strange downshift.
Because I’m a mechanic, I floored it to try and duplicate that weird downshift, and managed to spray the contents of the transmission (liquid and solid) all over the highway. It was a one owner, low mileage vehicle too!
One positive came from all of this, I still sold it for a profit, even with a transmission that grenaded so badly it lost neutral.
On the other end of the scale, I’ve owned a 1986 Hyundai Pony for 7 years now (widely regarded as one of the worst cars ever sold in Canada) and it’s been absolutely bulletproof, not to mention comfortable and very fuel efficient.
“it always had weird suspension clunks (even after replacing the sway bar links and control arm bushings”
Check the torque on the strut assembly shaft nuts. I had a similar problem on my Mazda5 (also replacing the sway bar links and control arm bushings to no avail) and it turned out a strut nut had loosened just enough that on compression the shaft would be loose and bang but the nut felt tight at rest.
Best part? If that does turn out to have been the problem it will have been an easy, free fix and you’ll look like a genius.
Similar generation RAV4, except mine was a V6 AWD. In the one year of ownership the battery failed, the brake booster failed, the AC compressor seized up and the VVTi started rattling at startup, at which point I sold the vehicle. Vehicle had 116k when I bought it.
My first car was an Obama-era Civic (the one advertised by zombies, ninjas and lucha libres) that I purchased used. It always ran but never failed to punish me on my commute. Bad engine mounts one month (magic finger front seats), broken AC the next. Tranny fluid looked like chocolate milk. It got so that lease payments were cheaper than repair bills and I let it go. Interestingly enough, I sold used cars for a few years and Civics from that era were always coming back with complaints. The ads said “To Each Their Own”. Well, mine won’t be an old Civic. At least not from that era.
My first car was a mk4 golf that made it to 145k with only fluids and wear items, apart from a brief span where it decided to eat taillight bulbs, once when I was backing out of a friend’s unplowed driveway after a snowstorm into a (snow filled) pot hole and woke the next morning to a garage floor covered in oil 7 (somehow managed to puncture the oil pan on the kerb), and once when a fawn jumped over a stone fence and landed on my grille. The car was fine apart from the plastic grille support, the deer was not so lucky. Sold it when a wheel bearing went bad and I didn’t have the cash for that plus the major scheduled maintenance (timing belt, etc) that needed to get done.
Replaced it with a 2 door mk5 gti that needed only fluids, tires, and rear pads in ~30k of ownership
Traded that in for a 4dr mk6 golf tdi. Only tires and scheduled maintenance in 50k of ownership as far as I remember. Sold it a month or two before dieselgate because I stopped having to commute.
After a couple of years of no car, we bought a manual ’14 Tiguan S. PCV got replaced under CPO warranty, otherwise just tires and scheduled maintenance over I think 25k miles? Sold it not long into the pandemic because it wasn’t getting driven. As a counterpoint, my parents had a ’12 Tiguan SE during an overlapping period that was an unending stream of troubles.
Lastly we have a ’14 JSW that has also beentrouble free over the past four+ years. Needed pads and rotors last spring and needed a fuel cap and EGR valve this spring, otherwise just scheduled maintenance.
One of the most reliable cars I ever owned was a 25 year old 3 series, and one of the least was a 15 year old Camry.
Notably the bmw had been meticulously maintained by 1 owner until I bought it with full service records going back to 1992, while the Camry had been abused the whole time and I bought it just as things like never changing the transmission filter/fluid and almost never changing the oil were becoming major problems.
What I learned from all of this is to be extremely careful who you buy a used car from.
The unreliable reliable car for me was my ’85 Renault Encore. I paid $900 for it in 2015. And as one may expect, it was far fom perfect and did have some smaller issues. But it always started and never once left me stranded in the two years I owned it. The only things I replaced on it was the radiator fan shortly after I bought it, a cracked and collapsed gas tank vent tube, and normal maintenance items. I honestly regret getting rid of it.
Not so much the car but the motor.. I have never had a Chevy 350 actually work right. Everybody says they’re bulletproof and will run on water but I have not had a good one. Now old Dodge LA motors? Never had an issue with one of those.
I have a 2018 Ford Fiesta and a 1988 Jaguar XJ6, and both have been quite reliable despite the reputations of their manufacturers. Admittedly, the Fiesta is in ST form so it has none of the transmission problems that plagued examples with the notoriously awful autotragic. My 2007 Suburban, although it’s a workhorse and I love it, has cost multiples of whatever I’ve spent on the other two in terms of maintenance and repairs. In fairness though, it gets pounded pretty hard and it has over 200,000 miles so the costs are not a surprise.
I bought a 1997 Buick LeSabre in 1999. It was one of my dad’s co-workers company cars. It had about 70,000 miles on it in just 2 years and had a bunch of hail damage, but they were lots of highway miles. It was supposed to be a dependable car, and I was just leaving college and needed something to get me to and from work. It was totally a grandparent car, but it was nicer than anything else I could afford and it was comfortable. It was really cheap for a 2 year old car (I think I paid about $5000 for it). It was dependable a few years, but then it started randomly shutting down on me and often wouldn’t restart for up to 10 minutes. Sometimes it would shut off on the interstate at 70mph. Sometimes it was at a stoplight. Sometimes it would be fine for 2 weeks, and sometimes it would do it a few times in a day. No mechanic seemed to be able to figure it out. It never threw any codes.
I traded it in on a dark, rainy night and they actually gave me what I had originally paid for it. I’m sure they didn’t see all the hail dimples and dings through the beads of water (I did keep it waxed regularly) and it probably didn’t stall on them during the test drive. I think it had just shy of 100,000 miles, which should have been nothing for the 3800 V6, but it was probably a computer or wiring issue someplace.
Karma got me though, and the new Oldmobile Alero I bought was a near lemon. I think it was in the shop for 21 days in the first year, and 30 is considered a Lemon in Michigan. It ended up with the typical leaky lower intake manifold gasket at about 40,000 miles. Just out of warranty. I sold it cheap to a co-worker and was very clear about all the trouble it was, but he didn’t listen. At least he never complained to me when it continued to have problems.
Sounds like the notorious GM anti-theft ignition problem. That was the only thing that plagued me in the Saturn SL2 I ran for 16 years. Towards the end some days the car just wouldn’t start and then I’d have to go through some reset process that took ten minutes. Then it would run fine.
The side terminal battery likely stripped a thread. Or the screw threads were choked with lead so it wouldn’t hold. I had a 1999 LeSabre that did the exact same thing one hot South Carolina summer day. It flummoxed me. A kind gentleman told me to replace the screws on the wires. The new screws cut into the lead terminals and fixed that issue for good.
I certainly wish I could have figured out the problem. I probably could have driven that car another 100,000 miles easy. I know we had a used Olds Cierra with the 3.8 in college that had over 260,000 on it before it threw a rod. That was a great engine.
My dad had a 2002 Civic at one point that was a total lemon for the first several years we owned it, until it mysteriously became super reliable like it’s supposed to be, which it was for many years until it ate the timing belt a few weeks ago while my sister was driving it (the car was passed down to her after my dad bought a Mazda 3). We’re having it fixed though so hopefully it’ll be reliable again soon.
In my case, I drive a classic car, and the stereotype of all classic cars being unreliable does not apply to my 1966 Thunderbird. This car has only left me stranded once, and that was the fault of a crappy Chinese alternator that only took an hour and $70 to replace. It had some 90,000 miles on it before I rebuilt the engine, and even then I only had to do so because a previous owner tried to rebuild it and made it worse by doing everything wrong – but it still started and ran every day and got me from A to B without fail despite all the valve guides being shot and the rings being in such bad condition that it was running on 7 cylinders and getting 5 mpg, that engine just refused to die.
Now it’s in much better shape, starts quickly, and I am confident that it can absolutely make it another 90,000 miles with ease, at which point I can just rebuild it again because classic cars are awesome that way. The transmission meanwhile has never been opened or rebuilt and still works perfectly, and seeing as they’re also used in trucks and RVs, I don’t expect to ever have problems with this transmission as long as the fluid is good.
I had a first generation Oldsmobile Aurora for close to 10 years and took that car up to 160k miles before I sold it. That car was… Great!
The Northstar v8 in that thing was the best part of that car. Smooth, good power, sounded great, and never gave me any issues. Read anything about those cars now and you would think you couldn’t make it around the block without blowing a head gasket.
My Emotional Support BMW drifty boi e90. 340k of New England roadways and being slide into a few walls still runs like a champ. It might not have a back bumper, but that N52 fires up every time. Compression still in spec. Yeah, it ticks like six singer sewing machines taped together, but BMW says it’s fine. Hold it at redline fairly often. Only thing I’ve done to it is angle kit, welded diff and damaged every bodypanel.
My Aston Martin Lagonda went for 10 000 miles without any troubles at all. Then it didn’t. It is an annoying thing.
Do you have any pictures to share? I love the Lagonda, even though part of me thinks it’s the ugliest car ever made.
I am not sure I have ever had a car that was unexpectedly unreliable that was not either my own fault (neglect) or the direct fault of somebody else working on it.
Non-car people are often surprised when I mention how unreliable Subarus are. I believe everyone I know who has had an EJ powered Subaru has had headgasket, ringland, or rod bearing failure. I’ve certainly seen all three, and experienced the headgaskets and ringlands personally.
I’m learning this, much to my chagrin
My stepdad leased Subarus for decades like clockwork — even after one of his Outbacks somehow suffered a cracked engine block while sitting in the garage.
Meanwhile my mom has been leasing Ford Escapes since their second generation until today, and has never had one mechanical problem with them. (Just a tire recall one year.) Fast-forward to last year: My stepdad drove my mom’s 2020 Escape Hybrid on a road trip and liked it so much that he got an Escape of his own when his Outback lease was up. He said the Escape is way more fun to drive than any of his Subarus.
At least every few months a non car person will approach me, say “I heard you like cars what should I buy?” Before telling me how much they want a Subaru. I then have to decide whether to tell them the truth (Subarus are garbage) or just smile and nod since their mind is made up anyway
If you tell them Subarus are garbage, when they buy one and have problems they will blame you because they heard what they wanted to hear which was that you told them Subarus were good.
I bought an ’06 Outback from my friend when I really needed a car. I took it to the dealer to have a new remote programmed and they did a full inventory of all that was wrong with it. It was a hefty list for a healthy car. One item on the list was oil was leaking, and I mentioned to the service manager that I had noticed a little bit of oil underneath it one morning. His reply was “Well, it is a Subaru…”
I loved my 2-door 2000 Impreza 2.5RS, but good grief was that thing unreliable. I luckily never had a head gasket problem (a previous owner took care of that for me), but there were plenty of other things to break – shift linkage, differential bearings, exhaust leaks, interior everything. Fun to drive in a slow-car-fast sort of way, but it broke entirely too often.
Mine never did any of those things! But I also never fixed the leaking valve cover gasket directly onto the exhaust. I’m not saying you shouldn’t fix a valve cover gasket and just replace a quart of oil weekly. But let’s just say Subaru hates this one cool trick!
Yeah, the old ‘self changing oil’ is a funny joke until it starts fogging the cabin with oil smoke through the HVAC system.
Or worse- My brother’s coworker had a ~2011 Forester that caught on fire and burnt to the ground on his way to work last year.
It’s frankly ridiculous that a car brand can produce engines for a DECADE that are almost guaranteed to have head gasket issues or other problems requiring engine-out service halfway through the car’s lifespan, and still have a positive reputation.
I really don’t understand how the general public has turned such a blind eye to it. There have even been class action lawsuits…
Relating to Mr Fusion’s story, my only real theory is Subaru drivers tend to stick with them, and don’t get to experience what it’s like to own an actual good car. They drink the ‘symmetrical all wheel drive koolaid’ and develop some sort of automotive Stockholm syndrome.
There are certainly things I appreciate about the AWD system and general agility of their compact SUVs, but damn they are shitty cars. Horrible interiors, dash rattles, thin paint, rust, under engineered suspension parts, bad fuel economy, constantly using using oil and coolant, on and on. Did I mention they’re ugly?
Our inherited 2010 2.5 Forester has 160xxx Km and has had its engine removed multiple times, and replaced once.
I love the irony of Subaru engines 1- being boxer engines, so the heads are basically tucked right into the inner fender. 2-putting shitty head gaskets on.
I can’t believe that the car with the worst head gaskets in motordom require step 1 to be remove the engine.
If only you could get to the heads through the wheel well…
Yes, Subarus are absolutely shitty and unreliable once they have a few years in, even if they’ve been maintained properly.
I’ve owned several great cars, but my old STi is a keeper.
Why? Because the EJ257, when it works, hurls this car down the road with satisfying tenacity. Also, the brakes are track ready, and the driveline can handle several times the factory horsepower.
The body structure has a 5 star crash rating, and the traction means that this car leaves the line so hard, BMWs and Mustangs cower in fear, and you don’t have to deal with as many assholes on the street, unless they are other Subaru drivers.
Icing on the cake for me are the electronically adjustable diff and selectable drive mode. Again, things that come in real handy on the track.
Did I mention factory adjustable front camber? Also forged factory wheels that would cost you about $1000 each to get something aftermarket with the same quality.
Last year, the car broke 4 different ways on my last 4 drives, but I’ll be piecing it back together, because it brings me joy with every morning commute.
If I weren’t a mechanic though, it would be a hard pass.
Most reliable car ever owned (of about 15-20 cars): 2009 Chevrolet Camaro SS 6MT, bought in 2014 w/50k miles. Previous owner was a cop and it was ridden hard and put away wet by that guy in upstate New York (so that’s after enduring salt on the roads). And yet this beast…could not be stopped.
Yes the LS3 in it has always been known to be reliable…but I was more surprised to see how well the rest of the car held together in the five years I owned it. Not a single non-consumable item ever failed. I had such a good experience, after a four year absence I’ll likely be buying another one this fall.
Wait, sorry to be pedantic but it was a 2014 with 50k miles when you bought it, you owned it 5 years and have been without it for 4 years? When did the previous owner put the 50k miles on it? Did he do it all in 1 year?
Whoops, nevermind. Reading error on my part. Sorry.
I owned a 2014 Fiat 500L, which I believe was statistically the least reliable car sold in the US for that model year.
The thing is, I was already deep into the Mopar/FCA forums for years, and I knew about some of the issues with the 500L. I waited until there were two TSBs issued that addressed the problems, and went to the dealer in spring 2015.
First, since they had 2014 models languishing on the lot well into 2015, they offered me $6000 off MSRP just for walking in the door. Second, all cars in their inventory had the TSBs applied. So I bought a loaded green Trekking model.
I owned that car for 3 years and never had one mechanical problem with it, apart from a dead battery. It was deceptively spacious inside, it handled shockingly well for a box on wheels, and the 1.4 turbo was fun to wring out with the dreaded DDCT — which, again, gave me no problems and was a fun transmission to operate.
The 500L remains my favorite car I have ever owned. I only traded it because my family grew and I needed a 3rd row.
Back in 2015, I bought a brand new 2013 Fiat Abarth 500C leftover at $11k off MSRP, I paid $18k before TTL. It was 2 years past the manufacturing date. The dealer put the vehicle in service 3 months before I bought it and sold the car with the Fiat certified extended warranty. I was still titled as the first owner according to Carfax. That same dealer had a Alfa 4C on massive discount for longest time too. Wish I could have gone back in time.
I owned that Fiat to 60k miles and was honestly my favorite daily driver I ever had. I wish I never sold it.
My Lexus LS400 (actually a Toyota Celsior). Had to replace sooo many parts during my 3 1/2 years of ownership. When the trans gave up, so did I.